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Pickpocket
Pickpocket is a dexterity based skill that allows you to steal items, except for precious items, that do not belong to you. It will give you the pickpocket special action, which costs 20 stamina points to use and "Shows how good of a thief you are." In Elona+, if a pet has the skill then each time it kills a monster it will get a certain percentage of that monster's gold. This skill can now be added via Gene Engineering if you have at least version 1.40. For older versions: a pet which doesn't already have it can only get it either via iving it a scroll of gain attribute or iving a rod of wishing to your pet, then wishing for the pickpocket skill. Stealing To steal an item, simply stand next to the NPC or item and pply the pickpocket skill in the appropriate direction (or press on the numpad, if standing on the item). This will bring up the NPC's inventory or display all eligible items in the spot. Sense quality will be automatically applied to all items and there is no risk in spying on a potential mark (i.e. looking at what they've got). However, doing so does use up the 20 stamina. Allied NPCs like pets cannot be stolen from or examined in this way. The maximum weight of the items you may steal is equal to your strength (including bonuses) divided by 2. Stealing heavier items takes more turns than stealing light items, but will also train you more. If you are fast enough, you can use a Hero spell or potion to increase your strength and steal items slightly above your limit; however, if it expires before you finish and you are no longer strong enough to steal the item, the attempt will fail. Also note that you cannot steal items currently in use, e.g. a food item that is currently being consumed, or an instrument being currently played by a bard. If you must have it, interrupt them and then put them to sleep. This may cause a karma hit. You cannot steal items from houses reached via moon gates, nor from the replica towns used in Panic or Challenge jobs ("You have no time for it!"). On being sneaky If there's nobody around, stealing a lone item is unlikely to be spotted; if you're in a respawning map like a town, then furnishings may even be replaced at some time, so you can steal them again. However, only a master thief can just walk up to somebody or something in the middle of a busy day and steal without being noticed. A blundering thief may even be detected by somebody who can't even see them; "loud noise" may be heard by somebody on the other side of a wall! In such situations, you will have to either wait until your mark is alone or use a rod or spell of teleportation to get rid of any bystanders or teleport your mark somewhere else. Alternatively, NPCs that do not speak with you (beggars, miners, bards, etc.), automatically switch places when you step on their tile, which can allow you to effectively push them away from a mark or to somewhere more secluded. Stealing is wrong! Your mark, or anybody nearby, may spot your illicit activities. This will cause your mark, along with any town guards, to become hostile and you will lose 5 karma. Further karma loss will occur if you fight back, so you should beat a hasty retreat out of town. Townsfolk will not remember that you attempted to steal anything after the map is reloaded and will no longer attack; however, NPC adventurers will remain hostile (use a scroll or spell of Incognito or a disguise kit to clear this if their Impress level is high enough) and guards may attack if your karma is below -30. Note that animals and even hostile monsters can spot you and accuse you of being a thief, and the karma penalty still applies if you are caught stealing in a dungeon or the wilderness. If you are not caught, there is a chance (1 in 3) that you will feel the stings of conscience and lose 1 karma anyway. However, this may be negated by having the feat from the secret treasure of the wicked. Items that you have stolen will gain the attribute "It is a stolen item.", lowering their value but allowing them to count towards the Thieves Guild quota. Stolen items cannot be sold by dropping them in your Shop, though this also allows you to store them there without risk of loss if so desired. Selling the item to a shopkeeper and then buying it back will clear this flag, but expect to pay a huge mark-up for the laundering 'service'. Managing Karma Even though stealing in general provides serious hazard to your karma, you can keep your karma at 20 or even 40, and enjoy the tax breaks so long as you keep a few points in mind. *Karma only matters on tax day or if it goes below -30 while a guard is nearby, so as long as it's still positive and not the 30th of the month, there's nothing to worry about getting a few dings to karma. *Every quest you can complete gives you +1 karma, and as long as you don't take transport or escort quests, there are no penalties except loss of fame for failure. You can also do many skill-based quests, especially any of the cooking quests, I want it!, Party Time!, or The Harvest Time (provided you have the relevant skills) in rapid succession and recoup plenty of karma for the effort. Doing those quests with full karma nets no additional karma benefits. **Accordingly, you can keep your karma higher by doing your stealing when you first come to town and there are plenty of quests remaining to regain it. *Never kill karma-penalizing NPCs like citizens, just teleport out of danger, and head for the border. Once you exit the map and return, the NPC will no longer remember the crime. You may need to boost their Impress level to avoid conflicts in the future, if they are a non-speaking NPC. Speaking NPCs will not generally become permanently hostile no matter how low their Impress level drops. *Stop stealing when your karma gets around 15 points below max, and just do karma-building quests until you get back near max karma. You can go lower if you really want, but it's better to keep a comfortable cushion of karma than have to make a rush for karma to mitigate your tax bill on the 29th. *Hold off on stealing when it's near the end of the month if you want your tax bill discount, and resume after the tax bill has come. Nukes are for stealing: *If you nuke a town you'll go to -100 karma (unless you have the feat from the secret treasure of the wicked). At that point you can steal all you want and not have to care about the -1 to -5 karma loss. *You'll also want to visit as many cities as you can and kill off the named NPCs for figures and cards. Be wary of the fires started by the nuke destroying the items you wish to steal, though. Try detonating them in the rain to minimize the destruction. When taking equipment from potentially hostile NPCs: *Stealing shields or off-hand weapons from NPCs will enable a two-handed damage bonus commensurate with the weapon's weight and the NPC's Two Hand skill. For example, stealing the shield carried by Doria the fighter watchman will make him do an estimated 50-70 extra damage, depending on his main-hand weapon. *Stealing weapons from higher-level warrior-types can cause them to attack bare-handed if they become hostile. Unless it's an artifact-level weapon, their Martial Arts is probably going to deal more damage than the weapon would. (Especially true for guards.) *Remember that since version 1.51 of Elona+, equipped ammo can no longer be stolen. If you want to stop NPC from using ranged weapon attacks - go for weapon itself. Robbing enemies: *First and foremost: being attacked in middle of stealing (even if attack did zero damage or was evaded) will interrupt it. Your mark must be busy with someone else or made docile with help of sleep or blind status effects. *Another point: stealing will fail if mark dies before you finish it. *Your "faithful" pets can be a major hazard when robbing hostiles. They can attack your mark and wake it or kill it. Your pets will consider the mark hostile and attack it if you throw a sleeping drug or use the skill touch of sleep, making this tactic useless. Switch them to self-defense mode or unsummon them away. Other tips: *The south-western region of Palmia has few NPCs, so you can easily teleport the remainder away and rob the place. The treasure machines in particular are extremely valuable, if heavy. *Books or spells of Resurrection can be used to permanently relocate troublesome watchdogs so you don't have to teleport them every time. Kill the NPC or arrange their death at the hands of monsters, then resurrect the NPC in a corner far away from the target area. They will regard the tile they resurrect on as their new home tile and hang around it, even spawning there in the future should they die again. *After you've hired a maid for your house, visiting adventurers are relatively easy marks and may carry some incredible equipment. However, if you fail and their Impress level drops low enough, the adventurer may become hostile to you wherever you encounter them. To correct this, you would need to use Incognito or a disguise kit and give them gifts while disguised until they are non-hostile at the next encounter. *If you are robbing adventurers blind, consider trading them lightweight, but high value items such as potions of cure corruption or potential and magical engagement jewelry. You can then rob them of the goods you traded. **Beware! Occasionally the item you traded will be deleted instead of showing up in their inventory, so don't trade anything you're not willing to risk losing! **Keep in mind that stolen goods can't be traded twice, meaning you'll still need to get more potions of cure corruption to keep trading adventurers for their gear. However, stolen potions of cure corruption still work on your own corruption, or for quests like Pael and her mom. This is especially useful in regular Elona, where giving potions after the quest has ended provides a karma reward. *After winning an arena match, the objects in the arena are generally risk-free targets as there is no one around to watch you steal. Likewise with the trees when you have finished a hunting quest, with sufficient strength. *If you have at least 28 strength, you can steal trees of naked from snowy areas. Walking in the snowy areas of the world map allows you to eat snow when you are starving, so with enough strength you can train forever there! The downside to this is that the stings of conscience will eventually make you a criminal. Also note that NPCs, including animals like bats, can spot you stealing, for a -5 to karma (sometimes spawning nearby and wandering in range to do so), so clear the surroundings of NPCs before stealing a tree. **With 40 strength, you can steal dead trees in the common wilderness, so you can do the same thing one step outside of any town, which makes karma management more convenient. *If you have a popular museum there will be many marks who will come flocking to see your art, and although it is crowded and would be difficult, you could likely train your pickpocketing on them if you don't get spotted, just be aware that Museums are a static zone and the NPC's inventory's will never reset. You can always kill them and force more to spawn when they are done, however. These are often very high-level NPCs, so only try this when you've got a massive amount of skill, or are willing to savescum. *The generic random dungeons, especially low-level dungeons, tend to spawn neutral NPCs like fallen soldier or little girl, so you can kill all the hostile NPCs on a floor, then practice your pickpocketing on them. *In Elona+, the Houzanha special action will cause random mining throughout the area, so if walls are keeping too many NPCs too close to your target, that would help them spread out more so you can teleport just a few stragglers. Where to steal furniture: *Southeast side of Palmia rarely has anyone there. You can net a bed and some dressers easily. *Miral and Garok's Workshop is also a good place to go, although you will have to kill the cats, because they act as look-outs and will call the guards when you steal. *If you have rods of teleportation or spells of Teleport Other you don't mind consuming, pretty much anywhere can be 'cleared' of NPCs in a non-hostile manner. Rods/spells of Summon Monster can also take out lower-level NPCs like citizens without facing karma penalties, but guards will wreck most monsters. *Shelters are a good source of furniture and marks if you're willing to rob and murder every person inside. Steal Chance Stealing formula is quite complex, but here are a few tips: *Stealing attempt consists of 2 + ItemWeight * 2 steal rolls against target's (and NPCs around) Perception rolls. To successfully steal an item, each steal roll must be higher than other's Perception roll. Number of required rolls is capped at 52. *Steal roll and Perception roll are random values, anything that affects them just increases higher limit. Even a character with 2000 Pickpocket can roll 0 and fail a theft against NPC with 1 Perception. *Dexterity increases steal roll, but it's 5 times less effective than Pickpocket skill. So a character with 30 Pickpocket and 200 Dex, has the same steal roll as the one with 60 Pickpocket and 50 Dex. *Perception is the only thing that affects NPC's chance to detect you. There is no evidence that Drunk status has any effect on pickpocket (at least in vanilla Elona 1.22). *Sleeping NPCs (other than your target) won't detect you. Pickpocketing produces a noise which can wake them, though. *Distance decreases the chance that NPCs will notice you. *NPCs that are more than 5 tiles away won't detect you. *5 tiles rule works on your target too, so if it wears a cursed item and gets teleported while you're stealing, you get a 100% steal success (unless it's teleported within 5 tiles or there are other NPCs than can detect you). *Stealing between 19:00 and 07:00 makes your steal roll 50% higher (it doesn't matter whether your target is sleeping or not, only time matters). *Stealing (Great) item decreases steal roll by 20%. *Stealing (Miracle) or (Godly) item decreases steal roll by 50%. *Luck has no effect on Pickpocket. Trained skill You may learn Pickpocket from the thieves guild trainer in Derphy. Races *Fairy *Kobolt Classes *Thief Wishing * Category:Skills